Monthly Archives: April 2015

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“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.”
― Dr. Seuss

I am grouchy. The April heat is almost unbearable. It hasn’t rained for six months. My internet sucks because too many people are using the bandwidth on my server. The new paint on my plunge pool blistered and we had to drain it. The power and water are unreliable. The entire community of Urbite has run out of water. The city well is dry. The roaming cows and pigs searching for something to eat knocked down our fence to munch on the sparse tufts of grass that are wilting in our yard. My neighbor had her thyroid removed and she can’t afford the thyroid pills she has to take for the rest of her life. Do you want me to continue?

When I read articles of fantasy such as the one linked below, all I can do is laugh. Fantasy Retirement? Living in Paradise? Let’s get real about living and retiring in Nicaragua. Life here is not all about surfing, drinking Toñas, and watching the beautiful sunsets. Living in Nicaragua isn’t for sissies.

In 2004, we used to enjoy going to San Juan del Sur. It was a quiet, little fishing village. Then, the cruise ships came, the throngs of tourists, and hundreds of expats moved to Nicaragua searching for paradise. Now, prostitutes, thieves, and drug addicts bus from Managua to where unsuspecting tourists are scammed. Then, they hop back on the buses to sell their loot in Managua. Yes, it is even happening on our little Ometepe Island.

The most important tip in Nicaragua: 1. Neuter your pet. Pet overpopulation is a real problem—shelters are over-run and homeless pets are everywhere taxing environmental resources. Only one in four dogs finds a permanent loving home. When it comes time for your next pet, support adoption as part of a green lifestyle.

Cappy is one of the lucky ones. We adopted him a month after he was born.

“Everything you are used to, once done long enough, starts to seem natural, even though it might not be.”
― Julien Smith, The Flinch

Marina’s daughter gave her a chicken killing dog. She tied it to the Mango tree in the front yard because it is a good guard dog. The other day, it chewed through the frayed rope, flew over the barbed wire fence separating our properties, and attacked one of our chickens. She apologized in the only way she could; she made us a pot of chicken soup. Yesterday, her daughter bought a muzzle for the dog. They showed us how the muzzle worked by untying the dog from the Mango tree. It flew over the barbed wire fence, and pounced on one of our chickens, flattening it like a tortilla. This time Marina asked to borrow our machete. I was afraid she was going to kill the dog, so I told her to make us another pot of chicken soup. Ahh…life in Nicaragua. It is beginning to seem natural.

I am an immigrant from the United States, now living in Nicaragua. My nationality was accidental. I happened to be born on one side of an imaginary line, instead of another. If I would have been born in another country, I would feel just as connected with my heritage, social norms, and culture as I do now.

The weekly photo challenge is Early Bird. Living in Nicaragua, we’ve become accustomed to rising early…sometimes as early as 4:30 am. All of the action occurs early in the morning in Nicaragua…the earlier the better because the afternoons are reserved for long siestas in the tropical heat.

If you are an early bird, you will probably see… the parrot getting the first ripe mangoContinue reading →

Floating in a pool free of gravity, I discovered that I don’t need to be in survival mode throughout the end of the dry, hot season in Nicaragua. A plunge pool sets me free. Free from the oppressive heat…from strangling dust that seeps into every pore and orifice in my body…from the brutal sun.

For several years I tried to convince Ron to build me a pool. His reasons for not building a pool were: 1. expense 2. maintenance 3. We live on…literally on the lake shore.

My reasons for building a pool were: 1. a plunge pool is cheaper to build 2. No filter needed and low maintenance 3. We live on the lake with a giant caiman lurking around our beach.

I won after Ron floated blissfully in my friend’s plunge pool in Granada. His sighs of content could be heard echoing all the way to the hardware store for materials to build our little rectangle of cool delight.

We decided to build the pool behind our house on the back porch for privacy. Plus, we have a view of our active volcano Concepcion. Work on the foundation began a few days after we returned from Granada.We hired Raymond and Jose to build the plunge pool because they are experts in working with cement. The walls are going up and up.The dimensions inside our pool are 4 ft deep x 48″ wide x 80″ long.Raymond puts a fine coat of cement over the pool. It is called repayo in Spanish.The floor is paved with bricks, then topped with a piece of mesh fencing we had leftover. Then the cement is poured on top.I wanted a shelf on one side of the pool for flowers, cool drinks, and candles.Next, tile lines the top of the pool.Raymond smooths the cement around the tile. We didn’t want any sharp edges around the pool.Then, we added a step to enter the pool from the front, and another one at the side of the pool. The bench and a drain in the wall complete the inside of the pool.We wanted a tile patio in front of the door, so Raymond and Jose prepared the foundation.I think the tile is beautiful. It’s slip resistant and will help control the dust and dirt in the dry season.Next, we filled the pool for two days to help cure the cement. Of course, we had to dip often. I bought a food strainer for 1 dollar to clean the pool. After it is painted and filled again, we’ll add a teaspoon of pool chlorine and drain the pool once a week. We’re going to put a mosquito net over the pool to keep out leaves and flying insects. It will hang over the pool just like the mosquito net over our bed.I am sad to report that we drained the 720 gallon plunge pool this morning. Monday, we paint the inside of the pool with special pool paint made specifically for swimming pools. The outside of the pool will be the same mango color as the walls.

Pool is painted inside. Now, we wait for it to dry for 3 days before filling it with water.

We will start the landscaping next week, too. We’re going to build a stepping stone patio around the pool, make new flowerbeds, hang a hammock between the Neem trees, and move some of the electrical wires that are dangling from our internet tower.

I’m in the process of designing a mural for the wall behind the pool. I’m planning to add colorful, whimsical fish. I also decided to make a Pre-Colombian pottery shard caiman mosaic on the front wall of the pool. Take that you sneaky caiman! You won’t keep us from enjoying April and May floating blissfully in our new plunge pool.

The pool was built in one and a half weeks, and the total cost of the pool materials and the labor was less than $400. I believe plunge pools are the wave of the future. They are economical, almost maintenance free, and use very little water.

The Weekly Photo Challenge is Afloat. I am fascinated by what was once afloat and then drifted slowly to shore. I could be a beachcomber. I am a beachcomber because you’d be surprised at what I salvage from things once afloat!

I wanted to bring this driftwood back to Ometepe Island from the Corn Islands. It looks like a bear just coming out of hibernation. Too bad the airline restricts us to 40 lbs. This piece that was once afloat would make a great addition to my flower garden.

A malecón is a jetty, but in Nicaragua it is more like a boardwalk and a port. The San Jorge port, where people make connections to Ometepe Island is undergoing a facelift.

When it is completed, it will be a hub of activity with shops, new docks for the ferries, a new parking lot, hotels, restaurants, and a ferry station. When we returned from Granada to San Jorge to catch the ferry home, colorful banners and hundreds of swimmers greeted us for the upcoming Semana Santa week (Easter week).

“Dementia. Ruth puzzled over the diagnosis: How could such a beautiful-sounding word apply to such a destructive disease? It was a name befitting a goddess: Dementia, who caused her sister Demeter to forget to turn winter into spring.” ― Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter

The Weekly Photo Challenge is Blur. As I sorted through photos for the weekly photo challenge, I discovered that I erased all of my blurred photos, except for this one taken by my mother. We were at a dance in her assisted living center and she wanted to take a photo. I lent her my camera and showed her how to push the button. But, her hands were shaking uncontrollably, and her photo showed a blurred image of two people…a caretaker and a patient with dementia enjoying a dance together.

My mother has Vascular Dementia with Lewy Bodies. I imagine her life is blurred like this photo. Her reluctant vocabulary and vanishing memories are held hostage in her head barricaded by plaques and tangles. Studying this photo, I see a blurred life, a mother I love disappearing and melting away like the ice-cube I dropped on the floor. As the disease advances, she becomes blurrier and more translucent, like a wisp of a ghost.

Everyday is spring cleaning day this time of the year in Nicaragua. It’s so hot, dry, and dusty that we have to clean our houses early in the morning because there is a fine layer of dust over everything. Then, in the late afternoon, we do it all over again. Sigh!

I thought I would take some photos of my clean house, because in an hour it won’t look like this.